ABSTRACT: Computer-Based Rock Description for Development and Exploration Geology

Mark H. Scheihing, Gary L. White

A computer-based core description system has been developed for onsite description, graphical display, and data transfer of conventional core, cuttings, and sidewall cores. This system is designed to assist the geologist in efficiently collecting, graphically displaying, and building databases of the geological and petrophysical attributes of cored sequences or individual samples.

The core description software is written as a HyperCard^TM stack. This stack contains a wide variety of geological and petrophysical descriptors for siliciclastic, carbonate, and nonsedimentary rocks. The geologist describes the core sample by selecting description parameters by mouse or keystroke for a given interval of the core or sample. The description of an entire core or set of samples is stored as a set of cards, each card containing the geological and petrophysical attributes of a given interval of the core or single sample.

Data entered into the core description stack can be output as a graphical display, text file, or spreadsheet file. The graphical display uses a series of BASIC programs to display the core description data as lithology, sedimentary structure, and textural and as comments columns. Extraction of data from the stack to make text and spreadsheet files permits easy transfer of core description data to other computers and software.

Use of this system has dramatically reduced the time and effort associated with the collection of rock description data and especially the time involved in preparation of graphical displays and data reentry for computer applications.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #91003©1990 AAPG Annual Convention, San Francisco, California, June 3-6, 1990